About Me

My credentials

I’ve recently been awarded a Fellowship of Chartered Accountants ANZ in recognition of my outstanding achievement and contribution to the accounting profession.

My career as an accountant was very much like everyone else’s in the early 90’s.

A Commerce degree. 3 years of full-time University taking all of the required subjects to qualify for the Institute of Chartered Accountants PY program.

Like many, the path was laid out for us. Our career progression within an accounting firm and was very much based on years of service as opposed to performance.

Basically we “followed the leader” and most of these leaders were conditioned to working long hours, pandering to clients, constantly being under pressure and following outdated procedures under the illusion of being rewarded for the hard work and time away from families “down the track”.

But things have changed. Most of us don’t want to wait to reap the rewards when we are 60 or 70, when our health may be compromised.

We want to have our cake and eat it too and rightly so. Who knows what’s around the corner?

I help accounting practice owners have their cake and eat it too!

I help them make more MONEY to enjoy now and to create their own nest egg.

I help them create FREEDOM and FLEXIBILITY in their practices so they don’t have to miss out on that precious time with their families – time they will never ever be able to get back!

My story

I started my accounting practice from scratch in 1999 at the age of 28 and a year before the introduction of the GST.

I had worked at a top tier firm and a mid tier firm. I was career minded and had my sights set on being one of the first female partners in that mid-tier firm. I did all the right things – I was one of the first in the office in the morning, one of the last to leave, took work home at night and on the weekends. I had no children at the time and my husband and I were cool with this.

At the time that I wanted to start a family, I had to make some choices. There was no maternity leave policy at the time, however, I was assured that an arrangement could be made. I thought to myself, mmmm, I could probably negotiate to work 3 days a week but knowing my work ethic and the expectations of the firm, they would be the ones that would win. I would probably get 5 days of work done in the 3 and the 2 days I had off probably would be open slather for phone calls and emails.

I made the call, I backed myself and set up practice at my home, 9 months before my son was born.

14 months later my second son was born.

Sure it was busy, but I gradually built up my client base and things were great.

Starting my business from home gave me an advantage in that I was selective of the clients I chose to work with and this still is a driving factor in the success of my firm and it’s something I still do today in my coaching business. I do not accept every client that approaches me to work with them. That is not snobbish or conceited, it’s just that I only have so many hours in the day and I only want to work with clients that that resonate with my values, we are a good fit for each other, they are open to be coached and are committed to making changes in their practice.

Check me out

I’m an advocate for SME accounting practices and their SME clients.

I’m one of two tax practitioners on ATO’s Single Touch Payroll Readiness Working Group and a number of ATO Focus Groups.